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Anna sank down on the mattress. “Are you Becks?”
The man crossed his arms. Even if he’d been in a fire, it clearly hadn’t incapacitated him. She could see taut muscles under his black sweatshirt. “I’m looking for a file that your boss gave you.”
“A file?” She shook her head. “That would be on my work computer, then.”
He uncrossed his arms and waved a hand dismissively. “No, it wasn’t. And it wasn’t at your house. Where did you hide it?”
She bit her lower lip. If she told this guy she didn’t know, would he kill her? Torture her? She wasn’t sure what to answer.
“Does your boyfriend have it?” he asked.
She blinked. “My boyfriend? I don’t have a boyfriend.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. It was a mockery of a smile, and she realized the rest of his face must be paralyzed. “Lieutenant Jackelson?”
She blinked again. “Gage? He…he’s just a friend. Look, what does any of this have to do with me or Gage? My work files are all on the office server. Coran can access it as easily as I can. I don’t understand what you want from me.”
He came over and crouched down in front of her. She tried to lean back, but he trapped her. Putting his hands on her shoulders, he held her in place, pulling down her shirt to expose her scars. Breath trapped in her chest, Anna sat frozen, too terrified to move.
“Glass?” he asked, tracing a finger along the raised lines.
She swallowed and nodded.
He nodded, too. “You know pain.” He touched a finger to his cheek. “It’s funny how pain changes us—makes us harder, less able to remember what anything else feels like. The world narrows to only the pain. To how bad it can be. But did you know? You can forget it.” He put his hand on her scars again. “You just have to make others hurt more than you do.”
Breathing heavily, she tried to turn away. He released her and stood.
She grabbed her shirt and tugged it back up over herself.
He bent down again. “Make this easy for us both. Please. Where’s the file Coran Williams gave you? I am quite certain by now that Williams isn’t lying about giving it to you. It’snoton the server. It could only be on a personal device. Which means you have what I need. That puts you in a very bad situation. Now—where is it?”
Shaking, Anna whispered, “I don’t know.”
He stood. “Perhaps you’re telling me the truth. But that only means you need to puzzle out where it might be and how you can get it to me—fast. Because I need that file, and if you can’t provide it, I’ll have to find some other use for you. And I’ve already told you how I deal with my pain.” Another one of those not-smiles. “I’ll give you a little time to think about it. Not much, just enough that you can figure out where it is before I come back. Because next time, I won’t be so kind.” He walked out of the room and shut the door.
Anna curled up into a tight ball.File—what file?The only files Coran ever gave her were the books to read.
The books.
She thought about the extra book that had been on her tablet—the book that she hadn’t downloaded herself and that had read like nothing more than than aimless wandering. Was that the file this guy wanted? Had Coran pulled her into this by loading that book onto her tablet to hide it away? Her own boss had put her in harm’s way, and for what? To protect some weird, rambling manuscript? What about that file could be so valuable?
And what should she do now? Should she tell this guy that the file had been loaded onto her tablet? She’d lost the tablet along with her purse, back at the alley outside her building.
What if she told them she could take them to it? Would they believe her? She’d always been a terrible liar, but maybe she could make this story stick.
Or maybe they’d just kill her.
Pulling the blanket closer around her shoulders, she tried to think it was a good sign that they’d given her food. She also tried to hang on to the idea that Gage was coming for her.
* * *
“Think we should call Commander Brighton?” Scotty asked. He was in the back of the car with Spencer. Gage was up front with Kyle, who was driving. They’d stowed their fake cop back in the trunk.
Gage pulled out his phone. They were following the directions the fake cop had given them, but it was taking way too long. He wanted to be there now. He kept thinking about Anna and how terrified she must be—she hadn’t asked for this, hadn’t trained for it, and didn’t deserve it.
“And say what?” he asked. He knew he sounded tense and clipped. He tried to even out his tone and his temper. “We’ve got a fake cop who is also ex-Navy in the trunk of our car, and we’re chasing a ghost who kidnapped a woman?”
Kyle gave a snort. “Brighton’s done a lot to cover for us, but if anyone was there with him when he took the call, he’d have no choice but to turn us all in. No, leave him out of it. But what’s the chance that someone did survive that mess in Borneo? Becks maybe?”
